Brexit: Britain should accept more immigrants if it wants a free trade deal, senior Indian diplomat warnsIndia's High Commissioner says they may to make sure any deal is 'mutually beneficial'

Britain needs to accept higher levels of immigration from India if it hopes to sign a free trade deal after Brexit, a senior Indian diplomat has warned.

YK Sinha, India’s High Commissioner to the UK, warned that after Brexit it may take up to a decade for the two countries to negotiate a free trade deal and the “freer movement of people and professionals” would be a crucial component of it.

The British Government has repeatedly promised to get immigration down to the “tens of thousands” and has already said it intends to end freedom of movement after leaving the European Union in March 2019.

But speaking to business leaders in London, Mr Sinha said signing a trade deal was “obviously not going to be easy” and said the deal may not be completed until as late as 2030, the Daily Telegraph reported.

He said: “It has to be mutually beneficial, it can’t be a one-way street. For instance, you’ve all read about issues of freer mobility of professions. That is something right up there as far as India is concerned.

“I’m not talking about unfettered access or unrestricted travel, I’m talking about movement of professionals, movement of doctors, technicians, engineers. I think both sides will benefit from this exchange and obviously it has to be a two-way exchange not just one way.”

This is not the first time potential future trade partners have voiced concerns about the Government’s future immigration policy.

In January India, along with Australia, told the UK to relax its immigration rules if it wants a free trade deal.

During a trip to Delhi, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was reportedly warned that the UK must loosen its restrictions on skilled Indian workers coming to the UK after Brexit if it wanted to get a good trade deal.

These restrictions are already having an impact on UK businesses.

Speaking to The Independent earlier this year, Indian restaurant entrepreneur Cyrus Todiwala warned that the Conservatives' “short-sighted” scheme to charge businesses for bringing skilled workers into the country could force hundreds of small curry houses out of business.

In April, the Immigration Skills Charge for people on Tier 2 visas – meaning skilled workers who do not have a PhD – kicked in, meaning employers have to pay £1,000 per year per employee.

In their manifesto for the snap election in June, the Tories promised to raise the charge to £2,000 per year – though the planned increase was shelved after the party lost their majority.

Mr Todiwala, who owns the award-winning Cafe Spice Namaste restaurant in London, said he needed to be able to recruit workers from India and Bangladesh to work for him because there were not enough skilled workers in the UK.

He explained that the traditional type of cooking practised in UK curry restaurants was not easily replicated by homegrown staff.

He said many chefs in India and Bangladesh learn from their parents, who in turn had the knowledge passed down over the generations, and are not keen to “teach” it to newcomers.

The businessman explained that most chefs learn by shadowing other people over several years, saying it was similar to the way specialist technical skills such as carpentry or masonry were historically treated in Britain.

The UK is one of the largest investors in India and according to a report by the Commonwealth, the membership organisation for 52 countries largely made up of Britain’s former colonial possessions, a free trade deal could boost British exports by £2.1bn a year. ​

India has only asked for easy movement of professionals not immigrants. These journos are day by day degrading their standards. India will only grant easy trade access to UK products if they allow easy visa to Indian professionals, and these things are also under negotiation table in WTO as well.

The title is interesting by what it reveals about how things are presented. That newspaper, The Independent, was largely against Brexit. That title is a way to say "you wanted less immigrants; but you're going to get more" and "you wanted to restore UK sovereignty; but weakened Britain is going to get bullied by all other countries".

The diplomat wants freer movement of professionals. Not long term immigrants. More like people coming and working a few weeks or months - complete the project - then fug off back. No citizenship obligations. Human resource is what we got. The govt is trying to arrange work for them. You can think of it as something akin to outsourcing jobs.- but taxes are paid to your territory - India gets the remittances only. @randomradio seems more knowledgeable in this than me. You should ask him.

Remember that these guys are gonna be earning 100,000+ a year and are gonna stay only for a few years. Not your poor 30k a year Polish immigrants. So it's a win-win.

Immigration is the only way for the UK to grow 3%+ a year. Otherwise, in a decade, you will end up importing services. So instead of bringing an expert Indian in to do the same job that's in the UK, the job itself will leave the country.

Remember that these guys are gonna be earning 100,000+ a year and are gonna stay only for a few years. Not your poor 30k a year Polish immigrants. So it's a win-win.

Immigration is the only way for the UK to grow 3%+ a year. Otherwise, in a decade, you will end up importing services. So instead of bringing an expert Indian in to do the same job that's in the UK, the job itself will leave the country.

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We accept twice as much as France, which has the same population and is twice our size.

The diplomat wants freer movement of professionals. Not long term immigrants. More like people coming and working a few weeks or months - complete the project - then fug off back. No citizenship obligations. Human resource is what we got. The govt is trying to arrange work for them. You can think of it as something akin to outsourcing jobs.- but taxes are paid to your territory - India gets the remittances only. @randomradio seems more knowledgeable in this than me. You should ask him.

The news report is alarmist and mishievously misleading.

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Like I said, there already is a barrier of £35k/year for professionals. Earn more than that and you can get in. Any less than that and it isn't skilled labour. They've obviously fooled you into thinking it's something different.

If you want free access to the Indian market, we are asking for free movement of professionals to Britain. It's an obvious win-win situation. We keep the brains, you keep the services and the profits generated from those services.

Since it's a two-way street, in the long run this system will help you more because India will be a growth engine for the next century.

Investment in its own people and research is the only way to achieve genuine growth.

If you want free access to the Indian market, we are asking for free movement of professionals to Britain. It's an obvious win-win situation. We keep the brains, you keep the services and the profits generated from those services.

Since it's a two-way street, in the long run this system will help you more because India will be a growth engine for the next century.

You don't have people.

You have job vacancies that even the EU can't fulfill, forget the UK.

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Companies are free to use people earning over £35k/year already, there's no mystery on transparency. But as regards 2 million per year, it's simply not possible, even 2/3rds of a million wasn't, and that's why we left. We were getting hammered on the EU fee and hammered with immigrants at the same time.

They don't even try fill them with local people. Case in point - doctors. They say there's a shortage whilst refusing people with all As entrance to medical degrees in favour of taking in foreigners instead. It's a self-engineered shortage. They also need to target job growth where there is actually unemployment.

When Indians speak an European language, it's English. French has perhaps some remnants in Puducherry but it's anecdotal at best. Wikipedia numbers say there's 1667 times more English speakers than French speakers in India (125 millions vs. 75 thousands). So it shouldn't be a surprise that Indian immigrants and expatriates would be more interested in going to Britain than to France. And they'll be even less interested by, say, Poland or Italy or Greece.